TexMessage: Cornyn chides Obama administration for failing to meet transparency standards of his 2007 law

TexMessage

Wednesday, December 5

Good morning, TexMessagers! Has President Obama kept his promise to make the U.S. government more open, honest and transparent?

TEXclusive

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Sen. John Cornyn is not happy with the current administration.

No, we are not talking about fiscal cliff again.

This time, it’s this: It turns out that a number of federal agencies are not in compliance with the 2007 law co-sponsored by the Texas Republican and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., streamlining the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request process.

The report went on to say that while President Obama promised during his first day in office to improve FOIA, saying, “A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency,” only 13 agencies could point to concrete changes to their FOIA practices within the first year of his administration.

“Outdated agency regulations really mean there’s an opportunity here for a second-term Obama to standardize best practices and bring all the agencies up to his day-one openness pledge,” said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive.

Is that too little too late?

“When President Obama took office, he pledged that his administration would be the most transparent in history. This report reveals how hollow that pledge was, and can be added to the long list of broken promises from his Administration,” wrote Cornyn in a statement.

★ National Council of La Raza will hold a news conference call on the impact of the fiscal cliff on Latino families at 1 p.m.

★ Europe and Eurasia Subcommittee (Chairman Burton, R-Ind.) of House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing titled “Iranian Influence in the South Caucasus and the Surrounding Region” at 2 p.m.

★ Atlantic Council of the United States will hold a discussion titled “Can the World Live Without Iranian Oil?” at 2 p.m.

Tomorrow and beyond:

★ Dec. 6. Safety and Security Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will a hearing on Superstorm Sandy and the recovery efforts at 10:30 a.m.

★ Dec. 6. The House will vote on the Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012, which would qualify time spent serving as a translator in the military in Iraq or Afghanistan as time spent in the United States for naturalization purposes.

★ Dec. 6. The House Science, Space and Technology Committee, led by Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, will hold a full committee hearing on the outlook of NASA at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2318 of the Rayburn Building.

Today in Texas History

Benjamin Milam, a hero of the Texas Revolution, asked on Dec. 5, 1835, the famous question; “Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?” More>>>